Dual-Band Coupling of Phonon and Surface Plasmon Polaritons with Vibrational and Electronic Excitations in Molecules.

Strong coupling (SC) between light and matter excitations bears intriguing potential for manipulating material properties. Typically, SC has been achieved between mid-infrared (mid-IR) light and molecular vibrations or between visible light and excitons. However, simultaneously achieving SC in both frequency bands remains unexplored.

Remote near-field spectroscopy of vibrational strong coupling between organic molecules and phononic nanoresonators.

Phonon polariton (PhP) nanoresonators can dramatically enhance the coupling of molecular vibrations and infrared light, enabling ultrasensitive spectroscopies and strong coupling with minute amounts of matter. So far, this coupling and the resulting localized hybrid polariton modes have been studied only by far-field spectroscopy, preventing access to modal near-field patterns and dark modes, which could further our fundamental understanding of nanoscale vibrational strong coupling (VSC). Here we use infrared near-field spectroscopy to study the coupling between the localized modes of PhP nanoresonators made of h-BN and molecular vibrations.

Electron microscopy and calorimetry of proteins in supercooled water.

Some of the best nucleating agents in nature are ice-nucleating proteins, which boost ice growth better than any other material. They can induce immersion freezing of supercooled water only a few degrees below 0 °C. An open question is whether this ability also extends to the deposition mode, i.

Negative reflection of nanoscale-confined polaritons in a low-loss natural medium.

Negative reflection occurs when light is reflected toward the same side of the normal to the boundary from which it is incident. This exotic optical phenomenon is not only yet to be visualized in real space but also remains unexplored, both at the nanoscale and in natural media. Here, we directly visualize nanoscale-confined polaritons negatively reflecting on subwavelength mirrors fabricated in a low-loss van der Waals crystal.

Nanoscale Guiding of Infrared Light with Hyperbolic Volume and Surface Polaritons in van der Waals Material Ribbons.

Van der Waals (vdW) materials host a variety of polaritons, which make them an emerging material platform for manipulating light at the nanoscale. Due to the layered structure of vdW materials, the polaritons can exhibit a hyperbolic dispersion and propagate as nanoscale-confined volume modes in thin flakes. On the other hand, surface-confined modes can be found at the flake edges.

pH control of the electrostatic binding of gold and iron oxide nanoparticles to tobacco mosaic virus.

We report the binding of nanoparticles (NPs) to wild type (unmodified) tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). The viruses are simply mixed with citrate-coated, negatively charged gold and iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) in acidic solution. This results in TMV decorated along its whole length by the respective particles.